As a college student, both exercise and grades are very important to me. A question struck me when I was thinking about whether there was any noticeable correlation between exercise and grades. I wondered whether regular exercise could cause my grades to improve? Before I dove into a discussion on whether the two are correlated, I took a moment  to think of the ways that the two could be connected.

1.     Exercise could cause students grades to improve.
2.     There could be some third variable that contributed to both good grades and regular exercise such as an individual’s tendency to be self disciplined.
3.     Reverse could be ruled out if the passage of time between exercise and improvement of grades were controlled.

A study was conducted by faculty at Texas A&M University in order to try and identify if a correlation between exercise and grades existed. One thing that I found very interesting was that the paper opened by saying that all the students involved in the study gave informed consent before participating in the study. This is important because it ensured that the participants knew all possible outcomes before participating. All of the students who decided to participate were divided into two groups, experimental and control. Because this was an observational study, those conducting the study just surveyed to find out the students’ exercise habits and put those who did exercise into the experimental group and those who didn’t into the control group.

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After looking at the data, there was no clear correlation between exercise and GPA. These researchers, however, continued to discuss that many researchers had found a clear correlation between the two. With so much evidence pointing towards a clear correlation between exercise habits and improved grades in other studies, it made me wonder if this field suffers from the file drawer problem. Perhaps university sponsored researchers are reluctant to publish data that contradicts a more popular view that exercise has a positive impact on grades because universities might want to encourage their student bodies to participate in regular physical exercise.

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In another study published in the Journal of Exercise Psychology, researchers compared students’ scores on a fitness test to their scores on SAT reading and math. While this study yielded a very clear correlation between fitness and grades, the researchers even said that it was very possible that this correlation was caused by a third variable. If researchers wanted to rule out extraneous variables, they could continue to design more well controlled studies and increase the populations studied in order to create statistically significant bodies of data that could reduce the chances of the study showing a false positive.

My take away was that you might as well take time to schedule daily exercise. Perhaps the supposed predisposition of universities is a healthy one–that is that daily exercise is a positive habit in the long term.

In class, we briefly discussed the hand dryer vs. paper towel controversy during one of our pop quizzes. The results of the design was the acceptance of the null hypothesis- that neither paper towels or air drying had an effect on the cleanliness of hands post washing.  I decided to revisit that topic in order to see if there are any studies that contradict those results.  Before we were quizzed on this subject, I was going to make it the topic of one of my blogs since it has been such a large part of my freshman year so far in the residence halls, which only have hand dryers.  These hand dryers are very noisy and powerful, and have left many people on our floor complaining about their inconvenience and their wish that we had paper towels in our bathrooms.

A study tested the difference between the two by having participants drying their hands with paper towels and two different types of air dryers- warm and jet.  I imagine the jet air dryers are similar to those in the residence hall bathrooms.  The results conclude that the jet air dryers spread the most germs and bacteria while the paper towels spread the least amount.  There were flaws with the experimental design of this study.  First, the number of participants and number of trials was left out of the report.  These features are extremely important in determining if an experiment is well-conducted or not.  

Of course, there are many different aspects to this controversy that differ from the hygienic standpoint of it all.  Air dryers are favored when it comes to cost and friendliness to the environment.  According to the Washington Post, society favors paper towels over air dryers.

In class we have learned the importance of meta-analyses which help show whether a conclusion is correct or not.  If many studies have similar results, then those results are most likely not a fluke.  The Mayo Clinic performed a meta-analysis regarding the topic of hand dryers vs paper towels and concluded that paper towels are the cleaner option.  With that, this means there is a lot of data from various studies favoring paper towels.

To conclude, we now know paper towels are the healthier option to dry hands with.  Most people invest in hand dryers since they will save them money in the long run and are environmentally friendly.  Unfortunately, for those of us living in residence halls, it is more difficult for us to make this switch since we cannot control the bathroom conditions.

Image 1: http://www.edson.com/uploads/solutions/paper-towels-packaging-edson.jpg

Image 2: http://www.buyhanddryers.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Xlerator-300×300.png

Growing up my mom always stressed the importance of flossing before and after a meal. Also with morning and especially before bedtime. We weren’t allowed to get into bed until she did a mouth inspection to make sure that me and my brother actually brushed our teeth.

Now many people just see teeth as a tool used to chew food so we don’t choke to death. I used to hate going to the dentist like many Americans do but it’s necessary. Every time the dentist would tell my mom “everything is good except she not flossing enough.”

I did not like flossing as a kid because my teeth were overcrowded in my mouth so it was extremely difficult to get the string to go in between each tooth.

The New York Times , reviewed a recent study by Cochrane Database Systematic Reviews they did an experiment to see if there was a correlation between not flossing and tooth decay . A null hypothesis was concluded. That there was no benifit to flossing as opposed to not flossing. This was reported all over the national media outlets. Many people jumped for joy after hearing this. However, dentists cautioned against this study arguing that there was not enough data prove this explanation.

Most people think that skipping on night of brushing or flossing won’t do much harm but it can especially if this becomes a habit. Now as college students after a long day its very tempting to go to bed without brushing your teeth.

Here are some of the nasty things that could happen if you fail to take proper care of your oral health.

There is a correlation between poor dental care and the overall health of your body. Did you know that not properly taking care of your teeth can actually contribute to cardiovascular disease? According to Collgate.com the bacteria from your gums can flow into your blood stream which can then cause clogged arteries which can then lead to a stroke.

As young people we think that tooth loss only happens to older people. Well that’s far from the truth what you do today can impact if you will have teeth tomorrow. After every meal you should be flossing because food particles can get stuck on your teeth. Also that white build up around the teeth as described by the Huffington Post is plaque. If left on the tooth too long it can cause cavities. Which is a whole in the tooth. They will either have to get filled if caught in time or a cap is placed on the tooth if too much damage has already been done.

Make sure to clean every part of your mouth including the tongue. Do you ever wake up in the morning and wonder what that white stuff is on your tongue? When is the last time you actually washed your tongue? According to Mayo clinic , it’s a combination of bacteria and other particles that collect over time on the tongue. Its caused by a lack of proper oral hygiene. To solve this problem a simple scrub with a tooth brush should do the trick. Just not too hard because it can cause the tongue to get irritated.

Some people only brush their teeth for a minute or a minute and a half. That not enough because you need to brush each tooth to remove all food particles. The recommend amoutn of time for teeth brushing is two minutes.

Make sure you are using toothpaste that has fluoride in it. Fluoride helps protect out teeth.  Limit the amount of candy and other sugary foods that you consume on a daily basis. Remember this equation proper oral care= healthy body.

One phrase that most individuals have heard in their lifetime is, “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” As a college student, I find the idea of waking up early enough to grab breakfast prior to class very unappealing. On the other hand, research has shown, missing this important component of your day could be jeopardizing your academic performance

While researching this topic, two questions came to mind. My first question was whether eating breakfast helps college students’ perform better on exams? And my second question was how much of a positive difference does eating breakfast make in college students’ academic performances?

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Gregory Phillips, a researcher at Blinn College, set out to answer the questions stated above. In this study, Phillips gathered a group of 1,259 college students and asked the group whether or not they had eaten breakfast on the morning before their second exam of a specific class. Whether or not the students had eaten breakfast was considered the independent variable. Only about 65% of students stated that they had eaten breakfast that morning.

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When collecting information on the dependent variable–exam performance–Phillips waited until the students were taking their second exams to compare the results of those students who had eaten breakfast and those who had not. The reason that Phillips chose the second exam to collect data was in an attempt to eliminate potential third confounding variables, such as adjusting to a new teacher or adjusting to the type of exams the students would be taking in that class. Some problems I noticed with this study were that Phillips never specified if all of the students had the same teacher or whether the exams were given at the same time of day.. A different professor could have a substantial effect on the scores between classes and differing exam times could change the impact of the breakfast meal.

In the write up of his findings, Phillips talked about some of the limiting factors that he faced while conducting his study. The first thing that Philips mentioned was that he did not know what the students had for breakfast. The students were asked if they had eaten breakfast prior to  the exam, not what they had eaten for breakfast. Because this was an observational study, Phillips was restricted from telling individuals what to eat for breakfast.

After analyzing the data, I feel confident in concluding that the consumption of breakfast does indeed have a positive effect on how well students perform in the classroom. Despite a few minor variables that could have impacted the results of the study, the positive effects were undeniable. It was quite apparent that a full stomach in the morning is positively correlated with a better performance in an academic setting.

As I left class today, I realized it was time to reevaluate my thoughts on evolution. Like Dr. Cavener, I was raised in a religious household, however my parents never discouraged the formation of our own opinions. My high school science classes briefly touched on the topic of evolution, but never went deep into the subject. The one thing I took away from my high school biology class was that humans share 50% of our DNA with bananas.Today’s class talk really got me thinking, about evolution. As a species, where did we come from?

The Beginning

According to BBC.co.uk, the earliest evidence of life on Earth can be traced back 3.8 billion years. These first life forms were single celled, similar to bacteria. As time passed the DNA strains present in these organisms mutated. These mutations caused both physical and psychological changes in species.

It was mutations like this that have caused giraffes to have long necks, as stated by Dr. Cavener, and has made humans the way they are. In fact, 3.794 billion years worth of mutations allowed for species to become bipedal. Bipedal is just a fancy way to say, walking on two legs.

Though mutations play an integral part in evolution, it is important to remember that mutations are random. The mutations happened by chance, but the mutations that have become mainstays in the animal kingdom are not exactly random.

The Darwinian Concept

English naturalist Charles Darwin’s theories regarding genetic mutation are widely excepted throughout the world. He claimed that though mutations in DNA strains are random, certain mutations remain and become the norm due to a process of natural selection. If a genetic mutation aided in the survival of an organism, then the organism would survive, reproduce, and pass that mutation to its offspring. This would continue onto the next generation and so on.

Years later work by biologist R.A. Fischer reinforced Darwin’s theories in his book “The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection”. Fischer used mathematical formulas and statistics to explain mutation survival. This quantitative addition, developed the evolution theory.

Who are we?

Genetic mutations make us who we are. Even the smallest of mutations can cause huge differences. Even if we share almost of all our DNA with another species, it just takes a few differences in the genetic makeup to cause them to belong to completely different classifications.

At this point I think it is common knowledge that we descended from primates. In fact we share 98% of our DNA with chimpanzees. We also share 85% of our DNA with Zebra fish and 15% of our DNA is shared with Mustard Grass. Though we are incredibly genetically similar to these creatures, differences in the DNA sequence make huge impacts.

Faith or Fiction

Though my religious beliefs cause me to want to agree religious texts saying God created man out of dirt, my instincts tell me not to. The data and research is insurmountable. Like we talked about in class faith does not equal science, and in this case my faith is not strong enough to overcome reasoning.

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Stress is something that is unfortunately another part of growing up. As a kid we didn’t have to worry about anything. The only thing we had to focus on was playtime, nap time and snack time. As a young adult I really do miss the good old days and long to be a kid again.

Stressful is the word I think most undergraduate students would use to describe college. We as college students have the right to be stressed with work, homework, internships, activities and maintaining a high GPA all at the same time can be a lot of pressure for one person to handle.

According to the American Psychologist Association , stress is characterized into three categories acute stress, episodic stress and chronic.

Acute stress (minor) is the kind of stress you get when you have ten papers and two projects all due in the same week. This is short term stress that is not as harmful and can actually be a great motivator for people to get things done. Everyone will have some form of acute stress in their lifetime.

Next is episodic stress (mild) you always feel like you are running from point A to point B. Or feel like there is not enough time to do anything. This is common for those that are too overcommitted.

The last more serious kind of stress is called chronic stress (extreme) this is more than just feeling too overwhelmed. This condition can go on for years. A person may feel like their situation will never get any better. It can be caused by current living situation, bullying, work and other stressful environments.

This semester I was extremely stressed out. I thought it would be smart idea to take on 19 credits that along with trying to get adjusted to University Park and getting involved with six student organizations at the same time

It started to really affect my mood. I went to the doctor because I  was having  major headaches and not eating properly. The doctor did some tests and everything came back normal. They said my symptoms were most likely due to stress. So I talked to my advisor and dropped a few credits and reduced the amount of activities I was a part of. After a few days I started to feel like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Take my advice don’t get too stressed out. Also look into what might be causing that stress.

There are also some symptoms to look out for if you feel stressed out stomach aches, headaches, lost or gain in appetite and lack of sleep.

This is what happens to your brain according to The Huffington Post, cortisol, a hormone that the body produces during stressful events is released but too much this can wreak havoc on the body.

I think as young people we need to learn how to deal with stress now before we leave college.  Because after we graduate and enter the real word there will be a lot more things to stress about.

Chronic stress in adulthood can lead to some deadly diseases like  heart disease, high blood pressure and so on. That’s why it’s imperative to find ways to destress before irreversible damage is done to your body.

Here are a few ways de-stress. Get a journal and just wirte about how you feel. Write down all of your thoughts the good the bad and the ugly. This will to let out all of the emotions in a healthy way.

Hang out with the people that make you happy. Spend a time with those that bring out the best in you. Laughter is natures best medicine. Plus, it will take your mind off of whatever is botehring news.

Exercise more, according to MayoClinic.org  being active releases a feel good hormone called endorphins. Not only will it put you in a good mood but it will keep your body in shape as well.

These are just a few idea on ways to relieve stress. There are literally hundreds of other recommendation so there something out there for everyone to try. So don’t be afraid to try a few and see which one works for you.

What sparked the idea for this blog post was a Gattaca-esque video that popped up on my Facebook feed. The animated video explains the process of how humans could be potentially grown, and tailored to the parents preferences, much like in the movie Gattaca. So this led to my wondering, is it actually possible to grow a human outside the human body?

As said in the video, the type of science that is working on developing this process is called eugenics. The purpose of eugenics is to try and enhance the genetic makeup of humans. The term itself was first coined in 1883 by Sir Francis Galton. Since then, the field has continued in their suit of human betterment through genetics.

With this type of science comes a plethora of ethical issues. People are very concerned in terms of genetically altering people and how that would effect people with disabilities. Some are of the opinion that doing this kind of research subjects people with disabilities to even more discrimination than they already face. It suggests that people with disabilities are only their disability, and it overlooks all that they can do and the positive impacts that they make on society. It also discourages diversity, which occurs through the regular processes in reproduction. There are arguments on both sides, but either way there is a lot of red tape involved in terms of actually doing anything, as numerous policies have been put in place regulating eugenic experimental applications.

Also, I have seen no studies even suggesting completing such an experiment. Again, this is do to all of the rules and regulations which have been put in place. It seems that the idea of growing humans outside of the human body is strictly a theory, and a pretty out there one at that.

Picture Links:

https://cstevens727.wordpress.com/2013/10/05/gattaca-review/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics

Lets be real, we all have acne. Wether its a pimple every now and then or they are constantly on your face. For me its usually while I’m menstruating and/or when there is a lot of stress in my life at that time. When you get a pimple you think “what the heck!”, “why me?” and many other thoughts. But have you ever thought what really triggers your acne?

In this article about acne, Chinese medicine had come up with an acne map. They have discovered that depending where you break out is caused from within in. In the article they have a virtual map that lets you click on the part of your face that has acne and it will tell you whats causing the acne. Thats pretty cool right?! I was able to figure out what triggers the acne on my chin/jaw area, and I will defiantly be trying what they recommend for the acne to go away.

They claim that face mapping isn’t always correct, but it can tell you what to look out for. The article also says to look out for what you are putting on and into your body. The disclaimer of the article is that what work for another person may not work for you. Don’t get discouraged if it dosent go away immediately, give your face time to heal.

Work Cited:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/01/hair-dye-process_n_4181186.html

Everyone knows that picking your nose is gross and will give you a bad image among the people who catch you in the act.  Although this seems to be an everyday activity for most, it is something that should be stopped.  A survey conducted by James Jefferson and Trent Thompson found that over 90% of the people who took part in the survey claimed to pick their nose daily.  In most cases, this is a private practice.  Another study showed that many adolescents stated they pick their noses multiple times in one day (Griffiths).  

Rhinotillexomania is a disorder that occurs when nose picking becomes exaggerated.  Most people do not suffer from this, but there are extreme cases where this can occur and people become obsessive about picking their nose.  This can be dangerous because it can encourage excessive nose bleeds.  Another issue is when people tend to pick their nose and eat what they just extracted from their nose.  The scientific term for this is mucophagy.

In addition to the gross factor, there are many other reasons why picking your nose is something you should quit now.  It is actually quite a major health concern which, when you think about it, makes a lot of sense.  First, by picking your nose, you can actually cause a nose bleed to start. There are many arteries that are located in the nose.  When you scratch those arteries it can cause intense bleeding and start a nose bleed.  This is a very common thing that happens to younger kids.

Secondly, the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus often resides in the naval cavity.  While picking your nose, you cause the walls of your nose to get scratched.  Even if you don’t realize it, those scratches cause your nose to bleed, even the slightest bit.  When scratches occur, it is often very easy for the staph infection to enter the blood since your nose will be bleeding slightly.  Many studies have been conducted see who has Staphylococcus aureus present in their nasal passage.  There has been no published explanation for why many carry this bacterium in the nose, but multiple studies have been performed.  Staphylococcus aureus can also be carried on a person’s hand, so when said person goes to pick their nose, staphylococcus is all over the place and increases the likelihood of receiving a bacterial infection due to it being present on both the hand and in the nasal passage.

In a particular study published by Cambridge University, there were participants that were ear, nose, and throat (ENT) patients and also, volunteers who were reported to be healthy.  All those who agreed to participate in this study filled out a survey describing their behavior with their nose.  In other words, they explained if they picked their nose and how often a day they picked their nose.  Then the ENT patients were screened to look for signs of S. aureus in their nasal passage.  The results were then broken up into the ENT participants and those who volunteered.  The ENT results showed that those who picked their nose were more prone to be carrying Staphylococcus aureus than those who reported to not pick their nose.  In terms of the volunteers, there seemed to be a positive correlation with those who reported picking their noses quite a lot and the amount of S. aureus in their nose.  I find this study very interesting because it proves that nose picking is bad for a person’s health.  The correlation between nose picking and the bacteria residing in one’s nose is significant and seems to have been proven positive (Wertheim).

So what does Staphylococcus aureus cause?  Staph infections typically cause growths such as boils or abscess.  It can also cause diseases such as food poisoning, toxic shock syndrome, or cellulitis.  Staph infections can be treated with a variety of antibiotics, depending, of course, what type of infection one has.  But instead of worrying about antibiotics, avoid the infection all together by quitting picking you your nose.

Bibliography:

Allan, Patrick. “Why You Probably Shouldn’t Pick Your Nose.” Lifehacker. N.p., 22 Aug. 2016. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.

Griffiths, Mark D. “Snot My Fault.” Psychology Today. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.

Picking, Stop. “Nose Picking (Rhinotillexomania).” Dermatillomania Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.

Stöppler, MD Melissa Conrad. “Staph Infection Symptoms, Causes, Pictures & Treatment.” MedicineNet. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.

Wertheim, Heiman F. L., Menno Van Kleef, Margreet C. Vos, Alewijn Ott, Henri A. Verbrugh, and Wytske Fokkens. “Nose Picking and Nasal Carriage of Staphylococcus Aureus.” Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology 27.8 (2006): 863-67. Web.

Pictures:

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I’m an avid tea drinker. I love tea, especially green tea, and all of the benefits it can offer. For example, green tea improves health and promotes weight loss. And mint tea can help with stomach aches. One thing I’m wondering is if tea can cause kidney stones. My friend posed this question to me a few weeks ago, and ever since then, that question has been swirling around my head— especially if I’m drinking a cup of tea.

According to EverydayHealth.com, an article they published stated that drinking iced tea may cause kidney stones. The article notes that because tea consists of oxalates,  kidney stones have an increased chance of forming in the kidneys. An oxalate is a common chemical that causes kidney stones to form. The article also points out that iced tea has a greater chance of creating kidney stones than hot tea. And while tea may contain oxalate, does correlation equal causation?

For example, while oxalates may be correlated with creating kidney stones, this does not necessarily mean it is the cause. Many other factors can attribute to causing kidney stones. These factors, confounding variables, could be the solution to this question of whether tea causes kidney stones or not. Some possible third variables may include genetics, gender, exercise, diet and age. And of course, chance could always be the answer to the hypothesis.

According to DiscoverTea.com, an article they published stated that different types of tea contains different levels of oxalates. The article further notes that a Japanese study concluded that green tea can even help prevent the formation of kidney stones. Additionally, the article points out that all of the studies used tea bags, and not loose tea.

I would probably conduct my own experiment and compare my results and data to determine if iced tea can cause the formation of kidney stones. I would perform a meta-analysis and gather two groups of people. One group would drink iced tea, and the other group would not. I would then compare both groups and determine how many people formed kidney stones. I’m interested to find out what the results would be, but I assume the group who drank the iced tea would have an increased number of kidney stones formed versus the non-tea drinking group.

While tea may have a lot of benefits, certain teas, especially of the iced variant, may cause kidney stones. But don’t fret, because some teas, like green tea, can have the opposite effect and actually prevent kidney stones. Be aware of what kinds of tea you’re drinking, but don’t be too concerned. Kidney stones are not a major health hazard, and they pass naturally through the body.

Unless you’re Joey from Friends, and it’s an unbearable experience all around. 

There are no boundaries to where science can go. There are limitations, yes, but the future is endless. There will be new, more advanced tools that will allow for new knowledge and discovery. I found an article that has five speculations on where science will be in 100 years. 

A good way to start is to look at the history of where we have come. In the same article, the author lays out a timeline starting from 2000 BC until 1962. For example, he says that in 1609 telescopes and microscopes were founded while in 1950 double blind experiment was founded. As for the five speculations on where science will be in 100 years:

The first, being that the author believes there will be more change in the next 50 years than the last 400 years of science. This is because we have come so far with technology that finally they (technology and science) can be used together. In the past, there was not a mechanism that could help facilitate in a way that no one had even imagined.

The second, being a “century of biology”. According to Live Science, Biology has nine “umbrella” fields and each of those consists of subtopics. Biology is HUGE. It studies a variety of things from evolution to functions of living organisms. In general, there is a lot to learn but focusing on biology will lead to massive breakthroughs, seeing as it has the most amount of scientists.

The third, being taking advantage of our state-of-the-art computers. The author noted that information is growing by 66% per year. More realistic simulations and hypothesis searches will give new value and provide motivation for data collection.

The fourth, being that new knowledge will occur (it’s deeper than you think). The fact that experiments and studies that had negative results will in the end add positive value for research in the future. According to the author, there is already a journal called, “Journal of Negative Results in Biomedicine”. A huge part of this is that very large “non-invasive” statistical data collection will occur where no one is going to even realize an experiment was happening.

The last, being that science will create a new understandings. The information and size of the Internet is constantly increasing while our brain “level” is not. The author noted it as being “all one machine and that we are the machine”.

There is really no good explanation of what will happen to science in 100 years. These are all speculations by a particular individual. What we do know is that it will advance and advance and advance. And, within those advancements, we will advance more. I am excited for what we will see in our lifetime. It was very interesting to see a current experiment happening in class today–replacing the mouses FGFRL1 with the giraffes in their genes. I cannot wait to see what happens next Fall!

Sources:

http://static.srcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Jetsons-and-Rosie-the-Robot.jpg

http://www.livescience.com/44549-what-is-biology.html

https://www.edge.org/conversation/kevin_kelly-speculations-on-the-future-of-science

Strike one, strike two, strike three and you’re in it for life. This is the ideology that our justice system has for criminals these days. Although, is it possible to predict if strike two or three will happen? Recently new technology has risen to jump start the idea that we can tell if a criminal will commit another crime after being released from prison. First, we will look at the neuroscience behind this belief, then we will look at how this can benefit our society, and lastly we will look at my personal opinion.

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Neuroimaging

Found through research at Duke University, “neuroimaging” is a new break through in the scientific community. Neuroimaging is a noninvasive process that allows for individuals to have better visualization of the brain structure and how it is functioning in each patient. Through this process, medical personnel and scientist are able to predict if a criminal will commit a crime again.

The following studies do not suffer from the file drawer problem; they have been published in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences”. The first study from the University of New Mexico, included 96 male criminals all between the ages of 20 and 52. All 96 individuals have been released from prison for the past four years. The study used the anterior cingulate cortex (ACA), the part of the brain that is related to impulsiveness and behavior. When this part of the brain is damaged, that particular individual is more likely to commit a criminal act. The study showed that of the 96 males, the ones with low ACA activity are two times more likely to reoffend than the others. With that said, if we can measure the amount of activity in the ACA on an MRI, then we can see who is more likely to reoffend, right?

Of course this hypothesis has many third variables. Some of these can be anything from the fact that these men were locked in prison for so long, as well as the fact that some of these men may not actually want to be civilized, this goes hand and hand with mental health. Matthew Bohrer goes deeper into what these third variables could be here.

Link

How this will benefit our society

This will allow for the justice system to better prevent more crime. The best example of this is with Rodney Alcala. In 1968, Alcala raped and almost succeeded in murdering an eight year old girl in his apartment. He was then released from prison and put on parole less than ten years later in 1974. After being in prison for five shorts years, Alcala was released. Afterwards, Alcala was convicted of killing five known girls. Could this have been prevented?

Crime in America says that of 405,000 prisoners, two-thirds of them were arrested again for a new crime only within three years of their release. Additionally, within five years of being released, three-quarters of criminals were arrested for a re-offense. This is a stomach flipping amount if you ask me.

Additionally, here is a study showing that eight out of ten inmates were arrested again after being released from a year or more in prison. This study was used to evaluate the Delaware Justice system, taking place in the year 2013. The Governor of Delaware stated that they needed to find a new and better way to reduce crime and prevent criminals from re-offending. The development of this neuroimaging technology can be that solution.

My Personal Opinion

Contrary to the null hypothesis, which is that neurological technology won’t be able to tell if a criminal will commit another crime, I believe that it will. Also, I think that this is something that could better our society immensely. If we have the ability to test a criminal before we release them from jail, we could then prepare or potentially avoid the next crime from being committed. The morality behind this argument is a discussion for a different time, but as for what is in this blog post, I believe that it could be beneficial.

Citations

Sci Gogo. Will Parker. “Future Criminal Behavior Predicted With Brain Scans”. March 2013. Link

Psycology Today. Joshua Gowin. “Can We Predict Crime Using Brain Scans?” April 2013. Link

As college students, stress is a concept that is near and dear to our hearts, literally… The subject of stress relief is very important to deal with on college campuses because stress can have a detrimental effect on students’ happiness and grades while attending college. During the process of researching ways to deal with stress, which involved sorting through the mountains of breathing exercises; I stumbled upon something that caught my attention, having pets might alleviate stress. After doing a bit of research I still had a couple of questions.

1.     Just how much do pets help relieve stress?
2.     What is it about pets that makes humans less stressed?

After further research, I came across a study run by Karen Allen, Ph.D. at University at Buffalo. In this study, Allen assembled a group of 48 Wall Street bankers who had histories of high blood pressure. The group was composed of 24 males and 24 females who had no history of smoking and no other current medical conditions. The last important feature of the individuals in this group was that they lived alone and had not had pets in the last 5 years. They were randomly assigned to one of two groups, experimental and control. All of the prerequisites the participants in the study had to meet helped eliminate possible confounding variables. In this study, the independent variable was whether or not the participants were given pets. The dependent variables were blood pressure and heart rate which were both measurements of participants’ stress levels. After 6 months of treatment for blood pressure in the control group and, for those in the experimental group, time with their pets, the blood pressures and heart rates of the subjects were taken. When put under stress, the blood pressure and heart rate of those in the control group jumped up to nearly pre-treatment levels while those who were in the experimental group averaged a relatively healthy 10 BPM increase in heart rate. The experimental group also experienced an average increase in systolic blood pressure of 8 mm/Hg, and an average increase in diastolic blood pressure of 9 mm/Hg, both of which would be expected from healthy individuals.

Photo Credit

After seeing these results, I was shocked by that fact that just having a pet could have that drastic of an effect on your physical well being. While this study did not talk about the P-value that they could have gotten, it seems that with as big of a difference in results between the two groups, the P-value would be extremely small. One problem that could have caused this experiment to show misleading results was the small size of the group that was being examined.

Photo Credit

While having a pet can be a burden for some individuals, the benefits outweigh the time and expenses of caring for an animal. This investment can score you a daily companion, as well as lead you to live a healthier lifestyle. The vast amount of benefits make it hard to argue that owning a pet is not a worthwhile decision for those that are regularly exposed to high pressure environments.

I went to a small college in North Carolina called Warren Wilson where alternative medicine wasn’t all that alternative. There, I was introduced to Kombucha. I actually got to see the live cultures that go into making this powerhouse of a drink, and it was pretty cool. Kombucha is made by fermenting black tea and allowing sugars to feed on it. This creates the live culture, which is home to millions of bacteria. The finished product contains these live cultures and acts as a probiotic along with having certain acids that can help digestion, and stuff like that! There isn’t much out there as far as the scientific method goes for proving these beneficial effects of Kombucha. Most of the “evidence” comes from anecdotes. However, when weighing the benefits against possible negatives (and there aren’t many negatives aside from the weird taste), then I think that giving it a try couldn’t hurt. But how can we tell if this is actually helping, or if its just a fad?

Dr. Axe  writes about 7 specific benefits to drinking Kombucha:

1. Detox: Kombucha possesses properties that help cleanse the body. Although there hasn’t been extensive research on humans yet, a study on rats showed improvement of kidney-liver function and improvement in hypercholesterolemic conditions.
2. Digestion: One of the primary uses of Kombucha is to regulate the bacteria in your stomach. It is thought that Kombucha will fill up the space in your stomach with good bacteria, and prevent the buildup of bad bacteria. Probiotic properties are among the benefits of Kombucha drink. These bacteria can also help us digest our food.
3. Energy: Kombucha also has iron, vitamin B, and small amount of caffeine which work together to energize the body. Iron is able to provide more oxygen in the blood, which results in more engery and ease of blood flow.
4. Immune Health: The body is filled with what Dr. Axe refers to as free radicals. These are byproducts that float around in our bodies as a result of different reactions that happen on a daily basis. Apparently they aren’t harmful until they become out of balance with the antioxidants found in our bodies. They can hurt your DNA and healthy cells, however, Kombucha has the antioxidant DSL can fight cell damage.
5. Joint Health: Kombucha possesses elements that help preserve collagen in the joints, and all over the body. This gives joint support, and can prevent wrinkles and skin damage.
6. Cancer Prevention: Dr. Ax provides some support for Kombucha’s ability to help fight cancer, and there are certainly elements such as the antioxidants and certain acids that couldn’t hurt. However, I couldn’t find any other research that really gave any credit to this statement. It may be a soft end point type of “solution”.
7. Weight Loss: Again, there isn’t enough evidence to say with any certainty that Kombucha causes weight loss. However, it has ingredients that lend themselves to weight loss in other scenarios, so why wouldn’t it be the same in Kombucha? Acetic acid has been shown to help burn fat, and can be found in Kombucha.

After reading all of this, I realized that perhaps the most significant element in Kombucha (and the most researched) is the probiotic one. Probiotics are live cultures that live within our body. They are beneficial to our health and important in balancing things such as digestion. A lot of probiotic products work to mimic these naturally occurring microorganisms.

An interesting fact that I found was that if probiotics are marketed as a dietary supplement , the do not need FDA approval. 

When I was introduced to probiotics and Kombucha in particular, I was subject to confirmation bias. If the people making and marketing this product said that it was all natural and would help balance my stomach bacteria, I really believed it! I’m not saying that it will definitely work or not, but again I think that the potential benefits outweigh the (almost non-existent) negative effects.

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As some people say, pets are life companions. No matter what, they will be there for you even when you are sad, mad, or sick. Every time I’m sad I hug my dog and she definitely makes me feel better. My best friend has a cat and she does the same. Overall, every one I know has an special attachment to their pets no matter if these are fish, cats, turtles, or dogs. In general I believe that they make you feel better and happier since they give a sense of companionship and make us feel understood.

I did some research about the extent in which our pets can help us. I found a study published on the American Geriatrics Society Journal that determined whether pet company can cause us any physical or psychological effects.

My dog

Scientists decided to make a longitudinal study for a year, that included 995 participants who were 65 years or older. The study started with 1500 participants randomly taken from the Ontario Ministry of Health data base. Only 995 participants were followed up during the period of time of the study. Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire about the type of pet they had or if they didn’t had any, their sex, education, income, leaving arrangement, health status (physically and psychologically) and asked them about any major event that has occurred in their life on the past 12 months (since this may affect them emotionally). Researchers controlled the confounding variables that could affect the results in any way. The null hypothesis in this case would be that the ownership of pets does not affect physical and emotional health. The alternate hypothesis is that the ownership of pets prevents the physical and emotional health deterioration of an older person.

Since many of the participants could not be followed up due to death or other situations, scientists ruled out those who were no longer part of the study. Later they compared the data recorded in 1995 with the one recorded a year after. Reverse causation had to be ruled out because of the time factor, meaning that it is impossible to compare the data collected a year after the baseline data and get results. The study had to be either causal or affected by a third variable. Chance on the other hand, can never be ruled out.

Scientists wanted to see if the ADL’s (Activities of Daily Life) of the people with pets indicated different results than the ones who did not have pets.  They found out that the physical condition of people who did not have pets had decayed more than those who did. The table below shows the results:

Figure 1

Scientists said it is likely that old people deteriorate at a lower rate when having pets due to the fact they need to be active in order to take care of them. After this, they compared the data for those who had cats and dogs with the data of those who had other animals as pets. The found out a correlation between cat and dog owners and high ADL score (physical).

Furthermore, scientists found out through statistical analysis that there was not a direct cause between the emotional well being of an individual with a pet or the absence of it. However, they did find that people had a tendency to give social support when having pets. Figure 1 below shows the results.

Figure 2

This results demonstrate how the psychological well being of the participants influence on their ability to react on crisis situations. Scientists found out that people who have pets will have a much better reaction towards bad situations than those who do not.

According to the National Center for Health Research there could be two possibilities, either people who are healthy will be prone to have pets or people who have pets are healthy. Also a German study indicates that having a pet can deteriorate health since they will not have enough time to take care of themselves because they are taking care of their pets.

Even though, many scientists and journalists do not find a clear correlation between health and pets, they believe there is one. To conclude, the study indicates that the alternate hypothesis that pets can make an impact on the physical and emotional health of a person is true. However, this can be due to chance and only relies in a group of people that belongs to the same region (Ontario). I think that there should be replication and meta-analyses in order to know if the results are accurate or can be due to a fluke.

Have you ever just looked up in the dark grey skies and watch as the sky lights up with a one-billion-volt electric shock and wonder, how is this possible? What is lighting exactly, and how does it form? According to the National Weather Service, your odds of being struck in your lifetime, based upon the average age of 80, is 1 in 13,000. That being said, are your chances of getting struck by lightening more if you are of a specific gender? My research on this topic are four-fold and through this particular blog post I hope achieve in answering all of the said questions. Personally, my hypothesis is the same as the null hypothesis, that there is no direct correlation to which gender is more susceptible to a lighting strike.

What is lightening?

Now that we know how lightening forms, let us take a look at what lightening is exactly. Is it really God smiting us humans on Earth? Science seems to disprove this theory. Lightening, according to National Geographic, is caused by an imbalance of charged particles within the cloud and has the ability to reach temperatures five times that of the sun’s. It also has the potential to strike Earth and cause many natural phenomena such as; snowstorms, forest fires, and even volcano eruptions! Who would have thought!? Luckily for us, the most common type of lightening doesn’t even hit the Earth. It usually transfers from one cloud to another. However, National Geographic, says that Earth is struck by lightening at least 100 times a day, making it a very common and naturally occurring event.

How is lighting possible?

Before we get into how many individuals get struck by lightening, let us take a look at how it forms. Lightening is much like getting shocked by your door handle when you reach to grab it. It all has to do with the build up of positive and negatively charged atoms. However, instead of building the static up through your feet and through your body, is builds up through the bottom of the cloud to the top. For there to be lighting there must be a thunderstorm. A thunderstorm is the vertical movement of water vapor from the surface to the air. At a certain height above the ground, a cloud will form when the temperature cools to the dew-point temperature. What exactly is the dew-point temperature? It is the temperature at which the air becomes saturated and water vapor condenses back to it’s liquid state. According to planet-science.com, as the cloud builds, the increase in height means a decrease in temperature. This makes the cloud at the top have frozen ice crystals, and the bottom to have rain drops (assuming the base of the cloud is above freezing levels). Due to the upward motion of air and water vapor and the natural down drafts of the thunderstorm, it causes the liquid water and ice crystals to bump into one another creating static electricity. This can be equated to the same as sliding your feet along the rug. Then after all of electricity has been built up within the cloud, the heavier negatively charged particles sink to the bottom of the cloud. While the negatively charged particles sink, the positively charged particles rise to the top because they are lighter, respectively. Then after enough static electricity has been built up, a huge shock – lighting – is created. This is ultimately like touching the door handle after you have rubbed your feet along the carpet.

How many people are struck by lightening?

To my surprise, a large amount of people are struck by lightening each year. Somewhere around 2,000 people are killed worldwide every year. Of the 2,000 people worldwide, 31 are struck and killed in the United States according to the National Weather Service’s 2006-2015 study. May not seem like much, but when they break it down to the odds of it happening to someone you know, it seems more likely. Based on their calculations, those odds are 1/1,300 people.

Just because you are struck by lightening doesn’t mean you will die. Even more people survive lightening strikes then actually die. However, their symptoms may be severe and forever lasting. Some side effects are; memory loss, dizziness, and memory loss. Of course there a number of other possible life threating side effects. With all the above said, are men or women more likely to be the victim of a lightening strike?

Who is at a higher risk for getting struck?

Surprisingly, it seems men are more likely to be struck by lightening than women! According to popsci.com, 648 people were killed by lightening between the years 1995-2008. Of those 648, 82% of them were men! Crazy, right? Well not really. The answer to this is quite simple, and actually makes a lot of sense. It was thought the cause of this was due to extra iron in the male cranium, or the conductive properties of the male hormone, testosterone. Unfortunately, this wasn’t necessarily the case at all. According to the article on popsci.com, and a study done by Peter Todd, a behavioral psychologist from Indiana University, it might just have to do with that fact that men are less willing to stop what they are doing for lightening. This being a possible third variable, Todd seems to think that the difference has to do with the natural “risk-vs- reward” process that has been genetically encoded within our biological being for thousands of years. Todd further explains that us women are naturally more inclined to stay back and care for their offspring, or themselves. Where as for men, they seem to have this natural attractions for one upping another male to be the alpha, or to potentially show off their courage to attract a female. This being said, this urge to impress comes with the younger male than their older and wiser male counterparts.

To conclude…

It seems my hypothesis may have been off, but not by much. I was simply researching to see if men or women have something within them that causes one or the other to be more susceptible to a strike (I.e. extra iron in the body, hormones, or bone structure). I was able to conclude that men aren’t necessarily more susceptible, but are more likely to be struck by lightening than a woman, not because of chemical makeup, but because they are less understanding of the consequences that they are facing. In conclusion, men seem to be more likely to be struck by lightening, but are by no means more susceptible than their female counterparts.

Sources-

http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/odds.shtml

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/natural-disasters/lightning-profile/

http://www.planet-science.com/categories/over-11s/natural-world/2012/06/what-causes-lightning.aspx

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-09/are-men-or-women-more-likely-be-hit-lightning

Photo one: Link 

Photo two: Link

Photo three: Link

Growing up, my parents have always been complete opposites when it came to raising me. My mom was always the “good parent”, the one that I loved to come to whenever I messed up and needed her help. Bad test grades, phone calls home from my teachers, and anything else along those lines always went to my mom because she was extremely forgiving and kind whenever I messed up. My dad, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. If he found out about a bad grade, I couldn’t leave the house for a month. He would sit front row at my schools concerts and give me his critiques right after they were done. Waking up early every Saturday morning to do math problems with him was a weekly routine, and I would get scolded if I got any wrong. He always told me that I would appreciate him doing all of this in the long run, but even now, ten yeas later, I still go to my mom with everything because she was always kinder and more understanding than my dad. This made me think: does being harsh on your children help them or hurt them in the long run?

According to a an observational study published in the Social Science and Medicine Journal, harsh parenting has an extremely negative effect on not only adolescent physical health, but on adolescent body mass index as well (ScienceDirect).

Why?

According to Thomas J. Schofield, author of the article and head of the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Iowa State University, parental harshness lowers our self esteem and self image and increases our stress levels. The scariest part is that it carries into our adult lives as well, affecting us even when we don’t live with our parents anymore. These results were also consistent with a meta-analysis that was published in 2009, describing multiple studies showing this exact thing. We can hope that there is no file drawer problem going on since so many studies have been published on this topic, giving us accurate results, especially since many of them have the same results.

There is likely a correlation between harsh parenting and a high BMI due to stress or emotional eating. According to this article, emotional eating stems from childhood, where most of us learn to associate food with comfort (Body For Life). For example, if a baby is crying, a mom would give it a bottle, or if a child falls off a bike he or she is given candy so that they’ll stop crying. When a child is being screamed at by a harsh parent, they turn to food to make themselves feel better; in turn leading to higher BMI and even obesity. I believe that this is incredibly dangerous because obesity, which is already such a big problem in the United States, could be prevented in cases like this if parents knew how to raise their children without pushing them over the edge and causing them to turn to food for comfort.

Low self esteem, something that is definitely prevalent in a child when they are constantly being put down by a harsh parent, is actually what causes adolescent physical health to be compromised. Just like stress causes us to be more susceptible to getting sick, low self esteem, which can cause constant stress and worrying in a person, does just that. Just as physical health is compromised, mental health is extremely affected as well. Low self esteem can cause people to self harm, want to fix their appearance with cosmetic surgery, or even worse, can lead to suicidal thoughts and actions.

That doesn’t mean that parents shouldn’t discipline their children at all, though. There are obviously many positives to disciplining children, like teaching them respect and how to be good people, but all of that can be done in a way that doesn’t hurt them in the long run. Parents can be strict without being harsh and abusive, giving their children a good life minus the low self esteem, high BMI, and many other problems that harsh parenting causes.

Sources –

1. Source 1 – Study
2. Source 2 – Meta-Analysis of Data
3. Source 3 – Emotional Eating

Picture Sources –

1. Picture 1
2. Picture 2
3. Picture 3

This might sound weird but I take pride in being left handed. Probably because we are a rare species of humans. Especially when only two other people in my family are also. They are both on my father’s side of the family; my grandfather and one of my male cousins. I see it as a novelty. Don’t get me wrong, it definitely used to get on my nerves in middle school when I would write my notes in pencil and the lead you leave a big smudge on the side of my hand and smeared letters on my paper. But I really do love it about myself. Makes me feel special. It got me to wondering the differences between being either left or right handed?

I didn’t realize that only about 10% of the population is left handed. We live in a predominately right handed world. Which apparently can have subtle Dr. Ronald Yeo, a professor of psychology at the University of Texas- Austin says that during fetal development that hand dominance is determined pretty early. So does genetics come into play when it comes to an individual being either left or right handed? Well apparently genetics are only 25% responsible, according to Yeo. However, it does run in families but its not as dominate as height and intelligence. This makes sense to me because there such a small group of us in my family who are left handed. It makes me wonder the likely hood that my kids, when I have them, will be left handed. There even seems to be a lot of theories about what determines a persons writing hand is. Many experts feel that it is really a matter of chance. One theory in particular that I found interesting is from a British study that found that super-stressed women who are pregnant can cause a fetus to touch their faces with their left hands more than their right hand. This website suggests that our internal workings and fine motor skills prove that a lot of our anatomy is not as balanced as we assume it to be. Gina Grimshaw, who is the director of Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, says that more people that are right handed use the left side of their brains, which is where language is processed. However, that does not mean that left handed people use the right side of their brains. What I’ve found from talking to people is that when they were little they wrote with one hand but then their parents corrected them and conditioned them to write with the opposite (mostly from left to right handed). But that is more along the lines of cultural norms and superstition.

So it seems that there really is no way to determine why people are left handed or right handed. It can be looked as a matter of one or the other.

Photo Sources:

http://realites-paralleles.com/2014/02/do-users-interact-with-their-mobile-devices-with-their-dominant-hand/

Sources:

http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20961805,00.html

http://www.livescience.com/17009-left-handedness-ambidexterity.html

People often underestimate the importance of water consumption; sometimes, people overdrink water. During my time in college, I’ve realized that I rarely drink water, and prefer beverages with higher calories, but beforehand, I consumed a lot of water to lose weight. Specifically, I drank at least 8 bottles of spring water a day. My mother, however, warned me that too much water, especially when drinking fast, can be dangerous. While water has healthy advantages, for instances such as weight and hydration, we should be aware of how much water we consume. Drinking less water and drinking too much water both have detrimental outcomes. But what exactly happens when we do these things?

The Advantages of Water Consumption

Glass of table-water. From gamebirdexpert.com

Water, of course, is essential to everyday life. If you’re familiar with the term, “Drinking water is good for you,” here’s why. Water has zero calories, and a fair consumption of it helps with our health. Because our body has a great amount of water, it helps maintain our body fluids. The more water we drink, the more our digestive systems improves. The best thing about consuming water is that it controls our calorie intake. Many people, of course, may use water as a way to lose weight. While water does not have a miraculous effect on our body mass, it contributes to calorie intake reduction. According to Penn State researcher Barbara Rolls, with water, you can reduce your calories instead of increasing calories with a soft drink. Water’s effects on the body, overall, are very necessary to have a healthy lifestyle.

The Effects of Drinking Less Water

What happens when we have less water to consume? One word—dehydration. When we do not drink as much water as we should, it can effect our bodies in various ways. Our bodies can retain water, especially if we consume high-calorie beverages more than we drink water. This is a result of what we call water retention.

Since water retention is due to lack of exercise and poor dietary habits, the best way to prevent this is to, obviously, drink more water. As stated before, drinking water helps with maintaining our body fluids, but less water consumption can retain water in our bodies instead of using water to release fluids from our excretory systems. We have to drink water to maintain the functions in our systems. Without water, we can become dehydrated, especially if you lose body fluids more than you consume it. Drinking less water can also increase the likelihood of high-calorie drink consumptions. Sodas, juices, and flavored drinks are more unhealthy compared to water.

Drinking Water TOO Much?

While drinking less water is dangerous to the body, overdrinking is also detrimental. Typically, a person is expected to drink at least 8 cups of water a day, but many studies have pushed this statement aside. When we consume too much water in our bodies, this results in water intoxication (Note: this only occurs when you drink water fast). In addition to this, too much water can affect your blood volume and you can also damage your kidneys due to excess water in your excretory system.

How Much Water Should We Actually Drink?

Instead of drinking less and overdrinking water, there should be a balance of how much you consume in our diets. The amount of water we consume will contribute to reducing calories, and keeping our internal systems clean and functional. So, drinking water consistently and not too much, as well as keeping a balanced diet is the most effective way of staying healthy, and the best way to prevent water retention and intoxication.

There’s nothing wrong with water! It’s just how you drink it!

I’m just like any other 22-year-old girl who fell in love with vampires when Twilight hit center stage. I will say when I was about ten years old that my aunt made me watch Interview with a Vampire with her (lots of movies that were scary to me at the time actually) except for this one I didn’t think it was scary. I thought vampires were pretty cool, for the basic reasons; immortality and psych-kinetic powers. Even though Ann Rice set the ground work for me with my fascination with vampires, Stephenie Meyers sent my teenage self into a whole other world. Her vampires are different than the traditional vampire and she caught a lot of flack from people because of it. Personally I thought she brought something new to the creature and she made a ton of money while doing it so all the power to her. I won’t get into all the differences, but one characteristic that lines up is some type of reaction when exposed to sun light. For traditional vampires they blow up, and in Anne Rice’s case, they turn to ash. Essentially, they die. Whereas Meyer’s vampires skin reflects off the sun and sparkles in the sunlight. This is where I had my epiphany moment. Traditional vampires condition with the sun can be thought of as having a sun allergy, times a million.

My Husband

You’re probably wondering where the heck I’m going with this. I’ve been seeing a dermatologist this summer due to a allergic skin reaction I was having to a medication that I was taking. My symptoms were red spots on my inner arms, inner thighs, and chest. These spots would be irritating and very itchy, and since I scratched them, they spread to up around my neck. She was rather puzzled by this because of how they developed she and her colleague were not quite sure how it developed. When She found out that I was on a biologic medication that for an autoimmune disease I have, we both came to the realization that being on a drug like that compromises the immune system. That was a piece of the puzzle for her so she did some more tests on pieces of my skin. In no way am I comparing myself to a vampire but I thought it was an interesting correlation. Even though it may sound crazy for someone to be allergic to the sun, its very much so a medical condition.

The general scientific term for a sun allergy is called “Photosensitivity”. This is caused by having a have a skin reaction to sunlight that is caused by a disruption in the immune system. This mostly happens when the skin is exposed to the sun. The areas of the body that have been seen to get affected the most from sun-exposure are the “V” of the neck, the back of the hands, the outside surface of the arms, and the lower legs. This reaction can sometimes look like tiny blisters, a rash, or even a skin eruption, but that is a rare occurrence. Excluding the back of my hands, my skin has reacted in those areas. Doctors do not know why this happens to some people and not to others but there is evidence that suggests that some sun allergies are inherited genetically. Some common types of sun allergies are; Polymorphous light eruption (PMLE), Actinic prurigo (hereditary PMLE), Photoallergic eruption, and Solar urticaria. Here is a site that talks more about sun allergies.

This is roughly what my chest looked like.

From looking at some of these I can rule out a couple of them but I won’t self diagnosis myself because that leads to unnecessary anxiety. I know I won’t blow up in the sunlight like a vampire or even sparkle (I’m not that cool), but I do know that, at least for some people, vampires and humans seem to have that in common. Even if its on a basic level for humans.

Photo Sources:

http://twilightsaga.wikia.com/wiki/Vampire

http://moviemorlocks.com/2010/03/05/feel-the-burn/

http://www.sunallergyhelp.com/tag/sun-allergic/

Sources:

https://www.drugs.com/health-guide/sun-allergy-photosensitivity.html

http://www.medicinenet.com/sun-sensitive_drugs_photosensitivity_to_drugs/article.htm

I don’t think I know anyone else that loves Orca Whales as much I love them. I truly believe they are my spirit animal. It all started back in the 90’s and early 2000’s when the Free Willy franchise was on VHS and I had a prop necklace of a Native American riding on the back of a Orca that the protagonist of the movie was given to by a Native American man. Native Americans in the Pacific North West call them Blackfish believe that the Orca whale represents great power and to see one in person is a significant omen. The whale in those movies was Keiko, and his story deserves a whole post of his own. Jumping forward into the future my love for them began to grow all over again when the mistreatment of Orca whales became a trending topic in the Media. Sea World was put on the front page again when in 2013 CNN premiered a documentary called “Blackfish”, which highlighted the captivity of killer whales in Sea World and other marine life parks. If you have not seen it, I highly recommend it. The first time I watched it I was crying so hard that I was glad that my roommate had decided to go out that evening.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackfish_(film)

I believe that everything in life happens for a reason. After watching this film I reflected on the fact that the first time I went to Disney in Orlando I wanted to visit Sea World. I wanted to see the Killer whale show. But on the day we decided to go, the park was closed. In that moment I was disappointed and really sad. But that small shred of disappointment would pale in comparison to the regret I would feel as a young adult for endorsing not only a show but an entire corporation that damages the psyche of such a beautiful and intelligent creature. It’s one of the many examples where man has completely disregarded another life. A life that, in my opinion, is lived to fullest more than some human lives are. This may make me sound like a crazed animal rights activists, but one cannot simply know about these animals and not feel a passion for being their voice when they have truly been wronged and displaced; all for the entertainment of man.

I feel that it’s important to give a prime example to back up the the points that I am going to cover that prove why Orca Whales do not belong in captivity. I will be providing perspective from a book by David Kirby called “Death at Sea World: Shamu and the Dark Side of Killer Whales in Captivity” that I read that highlights Sea World, the science behind Orca’s complex social skills and what in their biology made them evolve that way. The star of this post is a bull Orca  that has been in the business since he was baby and since growing up in a concrete pool gave him no stimulation, he has evolved into a psychological ticking time bomb that can only end in violence. His name is Tilikum.

http://www.seaworldofhurt.com/features/30-years-three-deaths-tilikums-tragic-story/

Tilikum is a 12,500 pound, 22 feet in length Orca whale (making him the largest Orca in captivity) that was captured in 1983 as a young whale, separating him from his pod. Orca whales travel in pods. Within these pods the whales have complex social skills which is reflected in how they interact with one another. One thing that I find most interesting about their family dynamics is that the male Orcas never leave their mothers side. from the time of birth till death they are within the vicinity of their mothers. The females in their societies are dominant and children are taught things and disciplined by the mother. One way that scientist have really seen their social interaction is when they hunt together as a pod. These families can be made up of at least 20 whales and made up of three generations; the grandmother, the mothers, and the children of the mothers. Day by day they work together strategically to lure their prey exactly where they want it before attacking and sharing their kill. A lot of the teaching that is done with the younger Orcas is very hands on, especially when it comes to hunting. When they are not hunting for food they are interacting with one another by playing, which sometimes includes tossing a live animal in the air and catching it, and jumping in and out of the water. Scientist have found that they are able to have such elaborated social lives because they have a part of their brain that humans do not. The area that is part of the Paralimbic region is more elaborated and larger than that of humans. This is where they are able to process complex emotions and thinking. It is because of this that they have evolved into having such dynamic social groups.

Orcas are separated into two main groups called Resident and Transient Orcas. Transient Orcas are native to the Pacific North West and Resident Orcas are native to Washington State, British Colombia and Alaska. Both of these groups are distinct in their food patterns which is the only real distinctive difference between them, i,e fish for Residents and marine mammals for Transients. Other differences between these animals are the structure of their dorsal fins and the saddle patch (grey spot on back) on transients is more forward on Transients. something that is common for all Orca ecotypes, including offshores, which are a least common and smaller form of the Orca species, is the fact that these creatures can live as long as human, and in some cases even longer than 80 years of age. Here is a video where you can get a sense of the hunting elegance of some Killer Whales teaching young ones on how to hunt and kill a male elephant seal

http://captivecetaceans-tragicallysad.blogspot.com/2014/09/is-tilikum-transient-or-resident.html

From the area of Iceland that Tilikum was captured and the characteristics of the whales that are in that area, he is more than likely a Resident Orca, who just like his counterparts is in need of his mother, social interactions, swimming hundreds of miles a day, and doing something as basic as hunt for his own food. Instead, he is reduced to floating in a pool that is too small for him to live in and be spoon fed fish that is filled with medicine that go against his natural genetic makeup. Since he was captured Tilikum has killed three people that have gotten to close to him and the two trainer incidents happened 20 years apart from one another. The Dawn Brancheau case became the turning point in history when it comes to questioning the ethics behind having such a majestic animal like the Orcinus Orca in captivity. It can be looked up anywhere, that there is no record of a Killer Whale harming a human in the wild. They are just as curious about us as we are about them and are known to come up to boats to interact with humans and be playful. Another scary thing that the documentary pointed out is that since Tilikum is a bull, he has been the main contributor to their breeding program. Since there is a history of aggression with this Orca, does it make sense to develop an entire breeding program around him? No. But to a corporation bent on making money at all costs, in that case, they don’t care. Now, there isn’t much scientific evidence on this, but on the outside, its disturbing to think that this whale is used as a sperm bank, one cannot help but wonder if his aggression will be passed down to his offspring. Here is a link to Tilikum’s “family tree”.

I could go on and on about this topic but I highly encourage anyone who is interested to read the book I mentioned above, and watch the documentary as well as others about these beautiful creatures.

Source:

Kirby, David. Death at SeaWorld: Shamu and the Dark Side of Killer Whales in Captivity. New York: St. Martin’s, 2012. Print.

Being a female in the modern society, I have been around multiple “health and beauty” trends since I was little. A very popular one at the moment is wearing waist trainers while exercising, doing everyday business, etc. in an effort to lose weight and get body shape that society currently wants. I personally have been curious in trying these items, but I wanted to ask myself – are these things actually safe?

So what exactly are waist trainers? They’re essentially modernized corsets. The biggest difference between waist trainers and corsets is that waist trainers are being used to lose weight and improve physique (specifically to reduce inches on someones waist), whereas traditional corsets were used to give the appearance of the hourglass shape in order to look more feminine and improve posture.

How do you use them? You wear them the same way you wear a corset – it surrounds your midsection, and depending on what type you get, you can get more traditional ones that are tied in the back or more modern ones that are either zipped or clipped together in the front.

How often do you use them? As often as you want. Some people only wear them while working out or doing physical exercise, and others will wear them all day, every day no matter what they are doing. It truly depends on your personal preference.

Physical repercussions? Almost exactly the same of that experienced with traditional corsets. According to Women’s Health, overuse of waist trainers can result in bruised ribs, bruised organs, and breathing problems. It’s been known (through every generation of corset-wearing) that wearing corsets too tight for too long can make it very hard to breathe and even cause some people to pass out. Think of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie: a woman is wearing a corset pulled too tight and she passes out from not being able to breathe – into the ocean – and that that is a very real health concern for people that continuously wear these items.

If they are so bad to use, why do people keep buying/wearing them? In part, it is because some people feel the need to reach that “societal standard” of beauty by any means necessary, even if it hurts them in the long run. Another large part is celebrity endorsement of these items. As shown in Women’s Health, the Kardashians are known for relentlessly endorsing and supporting these items. Due to their wealth and status in the world, they are very influential to the impressionable youth – if they see very famous celebrities wearing them, they will want to wear them too.

In the end, it appears that waist trainer is not a terrible idea if you are careful about it. While it MIGHT not hurt to try it safely, the most effective (and usually the safest) methods are healthy dieting (not avoiding eating) and living an active lifestyle. It may not be easy at first or even at all, but it’s better than to seriously risk hurting yourself using dangerous shortcuts.

Web source: Here

Photo source: Here

you smoke cigarettes ? EW! thats gross ! you will get cancer! you will die! stop smoking these cancer sticks! you smell horrible!

My fellow smokers, we all heard these phrases shouted at us, whether it was a parent, a friend, or a foe.  TV ads hurling facts at us, signs and billboards requesting us to quit as if quitting is easy. In this post, i will talk about my failed experience in quitting smoking and why I think smoking (while fully aware of the negative consequences) is a good habit.

Smoking, to me started as a social trick, when I came from Saudi Arabia to a small Penn State campus called Penn State New Kensington, I didn’t know anybody and had a rough time trying to make friends, so as a way to meet people, I figured i would go out with the smokers and light  one up and therefor seizing the opportunity to make friends. after that, my relationship with nicotine started and is still going on despite me trying to break up with it.

Smoking, is a phenomenal process, the minute i twitch the lighter and reach it to the cigarette, from the moments I huff and puff on it, till the moment its done and is discredited. my veins are rejuvenated, my brain focuses more than usual, my life made slightly better. no matter what I was going through, I knew for a fact that a cigarette could make it OK to say the least. nicotine is proven to have (effects) whether good or bad, it is a component that many people risk their lives for its sake. it is such an important part of my life, it is the thing thats always there for me, its the thing i can depend on when the going gets tough, when im stressed, or relaxed, a cigarette is sure to better whatever state of mind i was in. my love affair with nicotine became solid whenever I tried to quit it.

when I tried to quit smoking, the first two days were alright, i didn’t feel anything, on the third day, i started to momentarily phase out, on the fourth day, I was flat out depressed, on the fifth day, i was enraged. my mood became so horrible and my actions interpreted how bad I was feeling. I became rude and disrespectful and got into numerous fights and arguments, I also started eating more than usual. I became so angry and sad that I said, you know what? lung cancer cant be as bad as this, so I ran to the store and with a huge smile on my face, asked the cashier for Marlboro red 100’s and went outside to light up and voila, my brain became happy again. and my lungs got the long awaited choke i was yearning for.

Smoking is horrible, and for all of what I said, you should be discouraged from ever trying to smoke, because your life will never be the same, but for the mean time, Im still huffing and puffing away, enjoying cigarettes while knowing at the same time my lungs are getting blacker by the day, my heart slowly catching up.

After learning of the possibly devastating affects of scientific fraud in Tuesday’s class I was faced with a question.  Why does scientific fraud happen?  An article written by Adam Marcus and Ivan Oransky in the New York Times digs into the background of some of the largest scientific frauds of the century.  On average a scientific publication is retracted every day due to misconduct.  A whole two percent of scientists admit to manipulating their data to reflect the results that they wanted.  Now that two percent may not seem like a lot, but just remember that millions of scientific publications are posted by researchers a year.  If you still are not concerned with those numbers, just know that these publications are not just in some smaller local publications, articles have been pulled from the world’s best journals including The Lancet, Science and Nature.

Unfortunately, as the stakes reliant on this publication get higher, so do the problems with misconduct.  A paper was published in December of 2015 with the claim that one’s opinion on the topic of same-sex marriage could be changed after having a conversation with a gay person for 20 minutes.  When the article was published skeptics believed that the results appeared too good to be true and in fact they were right.  The retraction was requested by Donald P. Green, a Columbia political scientist, after his co-author Micheal J. LaCour failed to produce raw data.  In this case, the topic was bursting with the opportunity for a lot of press with an relevant and popular topic, and attention-grabbing research, not to mention being published in a top news journal.  It was the perfect formula for a success, if the science was done properly, however in this case and in many others, it was not.

Now while one may be forced to jump to the conclusion these so-called distinguished scholars are all in the blame there is another factor that is attributing to this pattern of dishonestly and misconduct.  Some believe that the subject of Science and the non-stop pressure to have the news-worthy breakthrough is what causes trained professionals to venture down this road of fraud.  The entire scientific community thrives off of “the next great idea” and one of the most daunting things that scientists face in publication is their impact factor.  This is referred to how likely the studies conducted in a specific study are likely to be referenced in future publications.  Citations are the few measuring factor in this equation so the more that one article gets the more impactful it is.

One of the most shocking facts I discovered  while researching scientific fraud is that the top journals that I mentioned earlier in my post like Nature and Science actually retract more papers despite having higher impact factors than other journals.  A possible theory to explain this attempts to correlate the prominent-like factors that these journals exhibit with the more precise examination of the articles due to the assumed increased awareness in its readers.  So in short, they believe that the typical reader for these types of journals are reading the articles more thoroughly than a leisurely reader therefore increasing the likelihood of identifying mistakes.  Another hypothesis is that due to the desire for journals to stay on top of hot/relevant stories the turn around for publications is under a much larger time crunch. As they want to publish the pieces while they are still relevant shortcuts in editing and proofreading may be taken.  

From whichever few you look at it from, fraud and misconduct is a huge problem in the scientific community.  Articles, journals, even scientists are being corrupted by the overbearing incentives to publish the next best thing.  Unless there is a change in that process it seems as if journals will continue to retract papers for a long time.

I don’t know about you, but my foot always falls asleep. I even think it gets more sleep than I do. Growing up, I am sure at some point in your life you have experienced the numbness or pins and needles, and said the expression “my foot is asleep,” but what does that personification really mean?

The science behind a body part falling asleep is actually pretty simple. How Stuff Works explains the concept in a very understandable way. Basically, by putting too much pressure on one particular part of the body, such as a foot or an arm, you cut off all pressure from the brain. Therefore, signals cannot be sent to and fro, causing nerve impulses to get all messed up.

Did you know though, that this annoying sensation actually saves you? A 5 minute tingling in your foot will not kill you, but all of this pressure also cuts off pathways from the arteries, causing lack of nutrients . The burning tingling sensations actually save you, because if the “sleeping” was to go on for more than a few minutes, there could be serious nerve damage as a potential threat. 

The technical medical term for a limb falling asleep is “paresthesias.” If this is happening too frequently, there are probably medical concerns around it. A few minutes or even hours won’t cause dramatic harm, but days can cause permeant damage to the nerves. However, the only way this could possibly happen is if one is unaware of the tingling signals. For example, if a person is passed out or under the influence of drug and alcohol for too long of time, they are at risk for permanently cutting off all blood flow to their arm.

Not to scare any fellow college students, but according to this article, one drunk women passed out on both legs and waited too long to get treatment, and ended up losing both bottom calves. Another man, a got permanent nerve damage from passing out over a whole day from heroine.

So lesson learned here, the next time your foot falls asleep, instead of cursing the word, be thankful that your body is warning yo and saving you from permanent damage.